A 5 minute walk

The rich and the poor have a common bond, The Lord is the maker of them all. ~Proverbs 22:2

I often wonder what the difference is between us and our friends downtown. I mean there are obvious differences. Age. Sex. Whatever. But what is the real difference. We live in the suburbs. Most of our friends downtown either live in a shelter or a weekly rooming house or a lower end apartment. So that’s another obvious difference. We might have different spiritual beliefs. We might believe in different politics. Whatever. But what are the real differences? I ask myself this question occasionally and I usually come to the same answer. Or sometimes, like today, I have more questions. Is it purely circumstances? Choices? Coincidence? That’s one I don’t have a whole lot of belief in. I just don’t think there are a lot of coincidences. I think sometimes the things we classify as coincidences are usually either a result of choices made or sometimes they are simply God’s divine will. However that really works. No matter the difference, at least outwardly, we are all created by the same Creator. He created us all in Him image. That much I know. So while we are all created uniquely, we are definitely created by the same Creator. It struck me today as I talked to a friend…

I took a walk from our new corner to our old corner today. It wasn’t a walk in the park, so to speak. A friend asked me as I was going through the serving line if he could have five minutes of my time. Well of course, that’s what we’re there for. Now I have to make a confession here. There are times on that corner, most times actually, that I really have a hard time focusing on specific conversations. There seems to be so much happening at any given time that I usually am fairly distracted. Not to mention, I’m usually wondering where the heck my kids are and what kind of trouble they might be discovering. Today? Erin, Jennifer and Turbo made a snowman family. To include a snowdog. Frosty, Frostina and their snowdog. So as I ramble here, that is pretty much how my mind works down there, except it is in some kind of weird hyper mode. Today, a friend asked me to take a walk. Ironically, we walked to our old corner, about a block away, where there are no more trees. Only grass and a few fake Christmas trees left over from the holiday season. As we walked and talked, I came to the realization once again that we are all the same. His struggles were my struggles. And if we are all honest, especially deep within ourselves and when no one else is looking, we all have struggles. Some deep. Some dark. But we all heave ‘em. I know I do. So once again, God was able to use me, I hope, to make at least a little sense to this fellow. I really have to be careful and I try not to get too psychological, because that’s not my gig. I just tried to relate to him that his struggles were no different than mine. And I swear it was all I could do to stay focused on the moment. Just listen. Sometimes that’s one of the hardest things for me. And it has to be fairly intentional. Because sometimes, and I have to be completely honest here, sometimes the conversations make no sense to me at all. Depending on the person and their sate of mind, there are things said that just make absolutely no sense whatsoever. For instance (and there’s always a for instance), I bet I spent 10 minutes listening to a young lady talk about the band Slipknot. I have no idea how that conversation started, and I was REALLY distracted during the conversation, because I’m not even familiar with the band’s music. It was obviously important enough for her to talk about it for 10 minutes, but I really wasn’t getting it. But there are other moments where a person just needs someone to listen. And maybe needs a little follow through.

So as we talked, I simply hope I was able to make a little sense. And then we prayed. Just the two of us. And before we prayed and as we talked, I just kept looking back down the street at all the activity. Kept thinking that I needed to keep an eye on the time to get done all the things I needed to get done. As if I were on some kind of schedule. But I wasn’t on a schedule. It was just me and him away from all the chaos and we prayed. On our old corner. And it felt right. And as we walked back it seemed right. I felt as though God had been with us. And that He gave me the right words. Because in all actuality, I’m such a rookie at all this. Anyone who knew me a few short years ago, they’d know that this would be a bit of a stretch for that Dave. But God has a strange way of infecting us with His will and when we listen, it seems that He actually does do some pretty cool things through us. That’s how I see it anyway. I don’t know if I can remember back to the first time I prayed with someone on that old corner, but I know that today it was little more comfortable. It was so quiet and peaceful on that end of the block and yet a short block away, a good organized chaotic thing was happening.

I know it’s strange that this whole thing is about a simple prayer. Or a walk to the corner and back. But when I try to strip away all that happens on that corner on any given Sunday, this is exactly what it should be about. In the middle of a couple hundred meals, buckets and buckets of clothing, socks, coats, gloves, hats, and whatever else, that’s what it should be about. One on one time in the middle of it all. If a guy is hurting, that should take precedence. And sometimes I lose sight of that. I think it’s probably easy to lose sight of it. All I know is that our walk and talk was probably more for my benefit than his. Because it reinforced for me several things I struggle with. That this is a journey. That my sinful nature and behavior didn’t happen overnight. It’s probably not going to get fixed overnight. And there will definitely be peaks and valleys. And one of my favorites – it’s not the issues that life deals us that reveal our character and heart, but rather it’s how we deal with those things that really reveal what we’re made of.

It’s amazing how much we can learn in a five minute walk. With a friend. With God.

He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.
~ Proverbs 19:17 (NIV)

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)